‘Queen of Mean’ brings biting humor to The Canyon





Lisa Lampanelli

Lisa Lampanelli

Lisa Lampanelli is known as the “queen of mean” in the world of comedy, but her fans take her quick-witted jabs, snarky insults and raunchy bluntness in stride.

Lampanelli will return to The Canyon club in Agoura Hills on March 1, ready to mock locals and show off her 107-pound weight loss. The audience can expect to hear more than a few cracks about her fight against fat and the rigors of maintaining her new, svelte self.

In a recent interview, Lampanelli talked about life, love, laughter—and losing weight.

She said she developed her style of humor growing up in a “loud, bawdy Italian family that liked to curse.” The strict rules of Catholic school in Connecticut also contributed to Lampanelli’s repertoire.

“My mother was hilarious and my father was artistic,” she said. “It was a good combination, and I got both,” she said. “I’m the middle child, of course, that’s why I’m like this.”

Lampanelli said she wasn’t popular as a teen even though she was invited to all the cool parties.

“I was not cool,” she said. She believes the party invitations kept coming because she made the kids laugh.

“It all results in what I do today,” she said.

Lampanelli may have been able to keep her teen cohorts and family members in stitches, but she didn’t think about using her sense of humor to earn a living until she was in her 30s.

A journalist who used to write a monthly women’s column for Playboy magazine, Lampanelli said she decided to try out a comedy routine just once.

“If comedy (didn’t) work out it was not meant to be,” she said. “Thankfully for the world, it did.”

She’s fighting mad

As savvy as her audience is, once in a blue moon somebody doesn’t quite get Lampanelli’s wicked sense of humor.

As a contestant on the fifth season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” she refused to issue an apology to Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, who accused her of insulting the “entire Hispanic culture.”

Lampanelli said Mendoza “doesn’t know comedy. She didn’t know what I’d do for levity. . . . I forgive her.

“Honestly, I’ve had so few incidences being misunderstood. I can say what I want for a living, and most people get that it’s a joke.”

On weight loss

Lampanelli said it took her 32 years to finally lose appreciable weight. She tried every weight-loss program available, and to win the battle of the bulge she even purchased a home that had its own health spa on the premises.

“I still gained weight,” she said. “I decided I had struggled enough.”

Lampanelli underwent a procedure called the gastric sleeve, an operation that cut out 85 percent of her stomach.

“You have to limit food to tiny amounts,” she said about the procedure. “It’s a blessing for someone who is a binge eater and has food issues.”

Now, Lampanelli says, a new struggle has developed—keeping the weight off.

“I’m working on staying this way instead of screwing it up,” she said. “(That means) exercising, unfortunately. I have to struggle to go on a walk.”

Despite the kvetching, Lampanelli is sticking to a workout routine and uses a treadmill and light weights several times a week to stay in shape.

On love and laughter

Lampanelli’s theatrical onewoman show, “Fat Girl Interrupted,” departs from her usual insult humor to reveal her struggles with weight, food and men.

Lampanelli met her husband, Jimmy Cannizzaro, while she was working on a satellite radio show to promote her CD.

“It took him three years to call me,” she said. “I really worked my magic.”

She and Cannizzaro have been married for three years.

As for kids, Lampanelli said, “God no, I’m way too emotionally unavailable for children.”

Who makes Lampanelli laugh? Shock jocks like Howard Stern and the original insult comic, Don Rickles, to name two.

Lampanelli has performed at The Canyon several times.

“I’m still going back, but I have no idea why,” she joked, though she admitted that The Canyon had a “cool” and “intimate” vibe to it.

Lampanelli ended the conversation with a few choice words for Californians and the residents of Agoura Hills.

“You’re nothing special,” she smirked. “You’re not as smart as the rest of us. . . . You need to up your IQ a little bit.”

For show tickets, visit www.canyonclub.net or email boxoffice@canyonclub.net or call the office at (818) 879-5016.


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